| absolute date | Any date where a year or range of
years can be applied to a site or an artifact, as opposed
to a relative date, where only a chronological
order can be established.
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| accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) | A variety
of radiocarbon dating. In conventional radiocarbon
dating, the amount of carbon-14 left in a
sample is measured indirectly by the amount of radioactivity
the sample gives off. In AMS dating, the
amount of carbon-14 left in a sample is measured
directly by an actual count of atoms.
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| activity area | A place where an activity or group of
activities were carried out in the past. The activity
area is transformed into an archaeological feature
by the loss or discard of material items used in the
activity—stone toolmaking, cooking, butchering,
burial—that was carried out there.
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| archaeomagnetism | Orientation of the earth’s magnetic
field can become fixed in relatively recent cultural
deposits like the sediments in a canal or the
clay in bricks lining a kiln. The date of a site can be
determined where that orientation points to a location
of magnetic north already fixed in space and
time along a master curve.
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| artificial selection | The process used in the domestication
and refinement of plants and animals by
which human beings select which members of a
species will live and produce offspring. Humans
make such decisions on the basis of their needs or
desires concerning the form or behavior of the
species—for example, plants that produce larger
seeds, animals that produce woollier coats, or animals
that produce more milk.
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| association | The spatial relationships among archaeological
artifacts, ecofacts, and features. Objects
found in proximity to each other are said to be in
association.
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| cache | A stash of stuff placed away for safekeeping
by ancient people.When the archaeologist is lucky,
a cache was not returned to in the past and whatever
was stored therein was not retrieved. A cache
becomes the equivalent of an unintentional time
capsule, providing a cluster of artifacts representing
a single time period.
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| calibration curve | Curve resulting from the graphing
of dendrochronologically derived dates for an
extensive series of tree rings and the carbon dates
determined for each of those same rings. See also
dendrochronology.
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| carbon dating | See radiocarbon dating.
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| carbon isotope analysis | Analysis of the proportion
of 12C and 13C in a bone or soil sample. Useful in
dietary and environmental reconstruction because
different groupings of plants use carbon compounds
containing 12C and 13C differentially.
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| cranial suture | The lines of connection between cranial
bones, which appear as a squiggly line on both
the interior and the exterior surfaces of the skull.
Sutures progressively disappear with age and can
be used to provide a general estimate for age at
death.
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| deciduous dentition | The baby teeth.
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| dendrochronology | Tree-ring dating. By placing a
tree section found at an archaeological site within
a master sequence of tree-ring widths through
time, the year when the tree died or was cut down
can be determined and associated with the site.
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| diaphysis | The shaft of a long bone. On either end
of the diaphysis is an epiphysis.
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| ecofact | An element found in an archaeological context
that exhibits human activity but that was not
made by people and so is not, strictly speaking, an
artifact. Burned wood in a fireplace, butchered animal
bone in a trash pit, and charred seeds or nuts
in a midden are all ecofacts.
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| electron spin resonance (ESR) | A radiationdamage
dating technique based on measurement
of the buildup of electrons in crystalline materials.
It can be applied to sites more than a few thousand
years old. The upper limit of the technique is estimated
to be more than 10 million years.
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| epiphyseal fusion | The epiphyses of each long bone
join to the diaphysis during physical maturation.
The age of death of a juvenile individual can be assessed
by reference to the degree of epiphyseal fusion
exhibited.
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| epiphysis | The long-bone endcap.
The epiphyses join at the ends of the diaphysis of
each long bone.
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| epistemology | The study of knowledge; how you
know what you know.
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| experimental replication | The reproduction, under
laboratory conditions, of facsimiles of archaeological
artifacts. A process employed to analyze ancient
technology.
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| faunal assemblage | The animal bones found at a site
and the species represented by those bones.
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| feature | The combination of artifacts and/or ecofacts
at a site, reflecting a location where some
human activity took place. Features include fireplaces,
middens, burials, cooking hearths, activity
areas, and buildings. Also defined as nonportable,
complex artifacts.
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| fission-track dating | A radiation-damage dating
technique that measures the age of an artifact as a
function of the amount of physical damage in the
form of damage tracks left in a material by radioactive
decay.
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| foraminifera | Microscopic marine organisms whose
exoskeletons are used in the analysis of the oxygen
isotope ratio in seawater. This ratio varies in proportion
to the amount of the earth’s water that is
contained in land-based ice fields.
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| half-life | The amount of time it takes for half of the
radioactive isotope in a given sample to decay into
a stable form. The half-life of radiocarbon, for example,
is 5,730 years and that of radioactive potassium
is 1.3 billion years.
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| hypothesis | A proposed explanation for some phenomenon
that may be derived initially from empirical
observation of the phenomenon by the
process called induction. A hypothesis must be
tested; predictions are deduced about what new
data must be found if the hypothesis is to be supported.
When data are found that contradict these
predictions, the hypothesis is rejected or modified.
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| isotope | A variety of an element’s atomic form. Isotopes
are distinguished by the number of neutrons
in their atomic nuclei. Some isotopes are unstable
and decay into other forms; these are said to be radioactive.
Some radioactive isotopes can be used in
dating paleontological or archaeological material.
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| k/Ar dating | Potassium/argon dating. The half-life
of radioactive potassium has been measured as 1.3
billion years. Because potassium is an abundant element
in the earth’s crust and argon collects in
rock solely as a result of the decay of radioactive
potassium, this technique is widely applicable.
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| luminescence dating | Determining the age of an
object by releasing as light the energy it has
accumulated since a fixed point in time. The
amount of light it emits in this process is directly
proportional to its age. Light (optically stimulated
luminescence) or heat (thermoluminescence) can
be used to release this energy.
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| master sequence | The regional pattern of yearly variation
in tree-ring width. The master sequence for
the American West extends back close to 11,000
years ago.When an archaeological tree-ring section
can be placed within the master sequence, it can be
dated directly, and this date can be associated with
the archaeological site at which it was found.
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| morphology | Literally, the study of form. An analysis
of the shape and form of skeletons or artifacts.
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| neutron activation analysis | Form of trace element
analysis. The precise and unique chemical makeup
of numerous raw material sources have been
determined through neutron activation analysis.
Archaeological artifacts can be analyzed for their
chemical makeup as well. When the artifact’s
chemistry matches that of a source area, it is concluded
that the ancient people obtained the material
from the chemically matching source.
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| obsidian hydration | A dating method based on the
rate at which a freshly exposed surface of obsidian
begins to alter physically by chemically combining
with water in the air or soil. The thickness of the
hydration layer that develops in a given environment
is a factor of time.
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| optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) | Method of luminescence
dating in which the time-dependent
energy stored in an archaeological specimen is released
by the application of laser light.
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| osteological | Related to bones.
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| osteological comparative collection | A bone library;
a collection of bones used as models to aid
in identifying the bones (species, sex, anatomical
part) recovered in a paleontological or archaeological
excavation.
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| paleomagnetic dating | A dating method based on
the movement of the earth’s magnetic poles.
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| paleopathology | The study of ancient disease,
trauma, or dietary deficiency, of which hominid
skeletons often bear evidence.
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| palynology | The identification of plants through the
remains of their pollen grains. Pollen is morphologically
species-specific; the pollen grains of each
species are recognizably different from the pollen
of all other plant species. Recovery at an archaeological
site of the preserved pollen of particular
species allows for the reconstruction of the plant
community present when the site was occupied
which can, in turn, inform us of the climate at the
time.
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| pedestrian survey | A systematic walkover of an area
in the search for archaeological remains. A pedestrian
survey is a useful tool in the search for sites
especially where ancient people built structures
with durable materials, where natural processes
did not cover up materials on the ground, and
where natural or cultural processes have exposed
buried layers on the surface.
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| photosynthesis pathways | Different specific modes
of photosynthesis that various plant groups employ
in the production of energy from sunlight.
Most trees employ one such photosynthesis pathway
(called C3); most grasses another (called C4).
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| pollen | Pollen grains are the male gametes in plant
sexual reproduction. They are durable and morphologically
species-specific. When they are preserved
at or near an archaeological site and recovered from
the same stratigraphic level as a site, it is posible to
construct a general picture of the local plant community
present when the location was occupied.
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| pollen rain | The overall count or percentage of pollens
of different plant species falling at a particular
place and time.
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| primary refuse | Archaeological artifacts and ecofacts
left at the place they were used or produced.
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| pubic symphysis | The point of articulation between
the two pubic bones of the pelvis. Changes in the
appearance of the pubic symphysis occur fairly
regularly during an individual’s life and so can be
used to determine the age of death.
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| radiocarbon dating | Radiometric dating technique
based on the decay of a radioactive isotope of carbon:
14C, or radiocarbon. Carbon dating can be
applied to virtually anything that was once part of
a living organism, within a range from about 300
to 40,000 years ago. Also called carbon dating.
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| radiometric | Referring to any dating technique
based on the measurement of radioactive decay.
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| remote sensing | A procedure that allows for the discovery
of archaeological sites or artifacts without
digging and that may include aerial photography
and a number of technologies that allow for scanning
below ground without disturbing the soil (proton
magnetometry, electrical resistivity survey).
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| secondary refuse | Archaeological artifacts and ecofacts
that were removed by the people who made,
used, or produced them from the place where they
were made, used, or produced to a designated
refuse area or areas—for example, a trash pile or
pit.
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| sexual dimorphism | Differences in the form and
size of the two sexes. Among most primates, the
male tends to be larger and physically more powerful
than the female.
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| taphonomy | The study of how materials become part
of the paleontological or archaeological record.
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| test pit | A hole or boring into soil in the search for
archaeological evidence. In some parts of the world,
a pattern of test pits spread out across an area is a
primary method by which archaeological sites are
searched for and by which the spatial distribution
of buried materials at a site is first identified.
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| thermoluminescence (TL) | A trapped-charge,
radiation-damage technique for dating archaeological
objects. Energy produced by natural radiation in
soil becomes stored in nearby objects. The amount
of stored energy is a function of the background radiation
level (which can be measured) and time.
Once the level of background radiation at a particular
place is known, how much has accumulated in
an archaeological object can be measured, and from
that the age of the object (how long it has been accumulating
the energy) can be determined.
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| trace element analysis | Determining the geographic
source of the materials used by an ancient people
through the analysis of small, or trace, concentrations
of elements or chemicals in those raw materials.
The levels measured in archaeological artifacts
are compared to the levels present in various
possible sources.Where the concentrations in an
artifact and a source closely match, it is suggested
that the prehistoric people obtained the raw material
from that source.
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| varve | Layers of sediment laid down annually in a
body of water, usually a lake. Varves may preserve
evidence of yearly fluctuations in the environmental
conditions in and around the body of water in
which they were deposited.
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| wear patterns | Characteristic and diagnostic traces
of damage or polish left on stone tools as a result
of their use. Analysis of wear patterns can often tell
the researcher how a tool was used and on what
material.
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| x-ray fluorescence | A technique for identifying the
chemical makeup of a raw material. For example,
each chemical element in the raw material of an
artifact—for example, a flint spearpoint—gives off
a unique set of energies when bombarded with
X-rays. The energies released can be read and then
used to determine the precise elemental composition
of the raw material. The geographic source of
the raw material can be determined when its composition
as determind by X-ray fluorescence is
similar to the composition of a possible source determined
in the same way.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education